


Her Light in the Dark

by ScriptaHistoriarum



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, LOTS OF LADYNOIR, Ladynoir July, Ladynoir July 2019, Mind Control
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 20:16:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19448761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScriptaHistoriarum/pseuds/ScriptaHistoriarum
Summary: After a faulty akumatization, Marinette is stuck between feeling terribly ill and fighting the demonic voice inside her head. Luckily, she has her partner to look out for her and make her realize that their bond goes deeper than she initially thought.For Ladynoir July 2019!





	1. Miraculous(es)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... between lots of life stuff that needed my attention and trying to keep myself motivated to write - but failing - I haven't finished the prompts from last months yet. HOWEVER, I can't skip on Ladynoir. Even though I don't necessarily have a favorite ship, I would still say Ladynoir if I had to choose. Which is why I want to do it justice. It took me SO long to come up with a base for this one since nothing seemed interesting enough, but I think I found it. I'm enjoying writing it anyway, and I think that's most important. 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy it too! It's darker than Adrienette April, Marichat May or Ladrien June, but I think it's a nice change. Let me know what you think so far!

“I’m really sorry, Marinette. You know I think you’re great, but…”

Marinette shakes her head, trying to hold back the tears that are already starting to form. “No, it’s okay. I get it. No hard feelings.”

“Are you sure?” Adrien asks, concern evident on his face. “Do you want me to walk you home or?”

“No, no, I’ll be fine. I just need some time alone. I’ll see you after the break.”

With that, she speeds off, not leaving him any room to keep the conversation going. It was already as awkward and depressing as it could have been.

She hides behind the first wall she sees and drops down, crossing her arms over her knees and pressing her face in them as she cries.

Why is she so stupid? She always knew that she had no chance with Adrien. And yet, for some reason, today she found the courage to tell him her feelings and maybe even ask him out.

Well, that obviously went well.

Marinette feels a small presence beside her, pressing against her cheek as she continues to sob. “It’s going to be okay, Marinette. It will hurt now, but I promise that it gets better!”

“I know, Tikki,” she says with a smile through her tears. “But it still pretty freaking hurts right now.”

“And that’s understandable,” Tikki nods wisely. “Just let it all out and then continue with lunch, all right? Alya is probably wondering where you are. Maybe-”

When Tikki halts her speech with a gasp, Marinette looks up.

An Akuma. For _her_.

“Don’t let it get to you, Marinette!”

She doesn’t have to think twice. She stands up as quickly as she can and bolts away, trying to outrun the tiny insect, but it’s flying fast and easily follows her along, no matter how fast she runs or what zigzagging paths she takes.

She tries to repress her negative thoughts. So yeah, Adrien rejected her, but it isn’t the end of the world. It’ll be fine. Everything is going to be _okay_.

But the butterfly still chases after her. Any other attempt at trying to forget about Adrien doesn’t work either. It is too recent. She can try all she wants, but the sadness just doesn’t want to go away; a lingering pressure in her head.

“I need to transform,” Marinette announces to her Kwami, who has been travelling with her on her shoulder, “As Ladybug, I think I will be fast enough.”

She sprints a little faster with the rest of the energy she has left to buy herself some time and sneaks inside an empty classroom. She closes her eyes and heaves one, two times to make sure she can actually speak and then says the magic words.

“Tikki, spots on!”

Tikki disappears out of her sight into the earrings. Marinette waits for the usual warm feeling of glitter passing over her as she transforms, but feels nothing.

When she opens her eyes, her vision is blurry and purple.

“ _Hello, Ladybug._ ”

Oh no.

“Hawkmoth…”

“ _I didn’t think we would meet like this, but now that we’re here, let’s chat._ ”

“No! Get out of my head!” Her hands claw at her face, trying to make him stop.

“ _But why? We can work together. The boy you like rejected you, I can understand you want revenge. And when you’re done with that, you can give me your Miraculous afterwards. Doesn’t that sound like a great deal?_ ”

Marinette shakes her head furiously. “I don’t want to hurt anybody and I’m _not_ going to give you my Miraculous. Ever. Forget it!”

She feels herself slip. His words do her nothing, but the sleepy feeling she’s experiencing is hard to ignore. It’s like she desperately needs to keep her eyes open or otherwise she will fall asleep, and then her body will be in his hands.

She is not going to let that happen.

“ _My, my, what fire you have. I suppose we need to do something about that, don’t we?_ ”

“Stop,” she breathes out, tears streaming down her face. “Just leave me alone.”

She is too busy trying to fight him off that she barely can think about how he knows she’s Ladybug. Is the Akuma in one of her earrings? Can he feel Tikki’s energy through the Akuma? And where is Tikki anyway? Shouldn’t she be transformed if she’s inside the earrings?

“ _This is the perfect chance to get what we both want, Ladybug. You can make the person you love, love you back and I will get the Miraculous. But only if you let me. Why fight it?_ ”

She clenches her fist together and growls. “Because revenge is not what I want! I don’t want him to love me by force! I’m okay with feeling sad for now. I’ll get over it eventually, and I don’t need you to help me with that. So get out of my head! NOW!”

“ _No-_ ”

The headache she’s having is getting worse, but the sleepiness is wearing off. Pressing her hands to her temples roughly to make the pain stop, it eventually ebbs away until she can open her eyes again. The sunlight coming through the windows is kind of bright, but she gets used to it after a minute.

“…Hawkmoth?”

There is no response. She sighs in relief.

Marinette scans the classroom, looking for the Akuma that should be out of her, but it is nowhere to be seen. Where can it be?

“Tikki?”

No response either. This time it worries her.

Her earrings feel warm on her lobes, almost like a buzzing sensation. Marinette leaves the classroom and enters the first bathroom to look at herself in the mirror. Her eyes widen as she takes a look at her Miraculous.

They’re not their usual black-brownish color when she isn’t transformed. No, they have their spots, indicating that Tikki should be inside, but they’re still different.

Instead of the bright red color her earrings should have, they’re a magenta-like purple.

“This is bad.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also! I am combining lots of prompts in this one to keep myself sane and make it easier on myself lol. And a lot of prompts just seem to work well together. Despite that certain chapter titles can be different than the prompts, I'll always put up what the original prompt(s) was/were!


	2. Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Combining prompts from day 2. Civilian Life and day 3. Patrol, although mostly focused on patrol.

Marinette drags herself up the stairs to her bedroom, flopping down on her chaise with a groan.

She is wondering for how long dinner will stay inside her stomach tonight. She hopes she can make it to four hours so at least part of it can be digested.

The warm buzzing of her earrings are a reminder of why she has been feeling so sick the past days. While she doesn’t entirely understand what’s going on, she knows that it has to do with her earrings. She should probably take them out, but she is too afraid they will get damaged by it. Master Fu is on a trip to and old friend, only being back in a few days, so she can’t ask him for advice. She just needs to tough it out until he returns and then he can tell her what to do.

It has crossed her mind to find Chat Noir and ask him what he thinks, but that means transforming and she wants to hold that off for as long as possible. She hasn’t seen him anyway, and there haven’t been any Akumas to lure him out. Hawkmoth’s probably just as confused about the whole situation as she is, thus temporarily putting Akumas on hold to figure it out himself.

Sometimes she thinks she can still hear him inside her head, that voice where you can just _feel_ the darkness dripping off of it. It haunts her mostly in her dreams – the sleepless nights not any better for her health – but she knows it’s just her own mind playing tricks on her. Scaring her.

A notification popping up on her phone lets her know that it is patrol night. They don’t do it often, since the only real threats are Akumas and they mostly announce themselves, but every once in a while they will wake up a little earlier or stay up late and do a few rounds around the city to help some citizens and maybe makes some kids smile by seeing their favorite heroes.

She doesn’t want to transform, but she can’t just flake on him without warning. To contact him, she _needs_ to transform. If it works out, she might as well go on patrol… and talk to him about it?

“I really hope this goes well.”

There is no Tikki to say the magic words to, so Marinette closes her eyes and thinks hard about her transformation. It washes over her in bursts, not like the usual smooth flow, and it feels cold instead of warm and tingly, but she is transformed nonetheless.

When she sees herself in the mirror, she frowns at her suit. It’s no different than usual, except for the magenta color crawling from her feet to her ankles, then fading into the red of the suit again. The same goes for her hands and wrists.

“Maybe I should de-transform.”

Ladybug debates whether or not she should go out, but when she gets a message on her yoyo from Chat Noir asking her where she is, she gives in and jumps out of her window to the streets of Paris.

While jumping across the rooftops she notes that she doesn’t feel any different and neither does her yoyo. If her state will remain like this, she just needs to endure feeling a bit sick for the next days and then hopefully Master Fu can fix her.

The added stress of trying to avoid Adrien at school is something she doesn’t want to think about.

Ladybug spots Chat Noir in the distance. He waves her over and she can’t help but smile. He’s always so excited to see her. Whether she is in a good or a bad mood, he doesn’t care as long as he can spend time with her. And somehow he can manage to turn her frown upside down whenever she’s feeling sour. Maybe he can help her feel better tonight, too.

“You’re late,” he scolds, but there is no anger in his tone.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. Just have a lot on my mind and I lost track of time.” She rubs her wrists self-consciously, hoping that he can’t see the change in color of her suit in the dark of the night.

“That’s all right, I’ve been kinda busy as well. Let’s do a short round so we can go home quickly then, all right?”

She nods her okay. They patrol a part together and then they split up to shorten the time, planning on meeting up again on the Eiffel Tower, as they usually do.

Ladybug feels herself getting tired and nauseous as she jumps on another building. She finds herself taking more breaks in-between and when she arrives on the Eiffel Tower, Chat Noir is sitting there, obviously having been waiting for quite some time.

“Was something wrong? You took your time getting here,” he jokes.

She lands next to him and the moment her feet touch ground, she leans against the first beam she can find, breathing heavily. “I’m just not feeling t-too hot.”

“Why didn’t you say so before we left? I could have done it by myself.” He gets up with a worried expression and eyes her. “Now that you mention it, you do look a bit pale.”

“I’ll b-be fine,” she waves him off. “J-just need a moment to r-rest.” She feels herself getting all warm and tingly on the inside, her breathing becoming shallower with each breath she takes.

“…You don’t have to act tough for me, you know? If you’re sick then you’re sick.” Chat Noir puts a hand on her shoulder to make her look up at him. She feels her eyes shaking and her skin sticking uncomfortably to her suit. “You’re sweating. I don’t want you to go home alone like this.”

“I a-already told you. I’m f-fine.”

She wobbles away from him, desperate to go home and maybe sleep it off. He tries to grab her by the wrist to make her stay, but she escapes his grip.

“Ladybug! Wait a sec!”

She turns around to look at him, seeing the worry in his eyes until she feels heavy and everything turns black.


	3. Best Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting this one out a little early since I'm on a writing-spree :)
> 
> Prompts: day 4. Babysitting and day 5. Lost

“Noël, cut it out!”

“Kids, just play nice, _please_.”

“It’s not my fault! Ella is being annoying!”

“I’m not Ella, I’m Etta, idiot!”

“You’re the idiot!”

“Enough!”

The three kids freeze in fear and look at the person producing the roar of anger.

Alya rubs her temples with a deep sigh. “I don’t feel like dealing with this. No one is an idiot. Etta wears the pink t-shirt, Ella the teal t-shirt, okay Noël? I want you all to go back to the bedroom and play nicely, understood? Otherwise you’re all going to bed early.”

The three kids nod and say in unison, “Yes, Alya. We’re sorry.”

She smiles. “All right. Now, go play!”

They run off with giggles and leave Alya feeling relaxed, now that they probably won’t bother her for another hour. She goes to the kitchen to get a glass of water, looking at her best friend on the couch who should be watching the movie but is just staring at her hands as if they hold the answer to the meaning of life, despite that they’re empty.

“M, you all right?” Marinette has been acting kind of odd all evening. She is awfully quiet and zones out a lot of times. She looks paler too and has been going to the bathroom more often than Alya would like to see, but whenever she asks about it, Marinette always responds with-

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.” Her voice is soft and fragile, and it makes Alya frown.

They are best friends, right? Something is obviously wrong, so why won’t Marinette just tell her?

Alya sits down on the couch giving Marinette another once over. “Like I said before, you don’t look too great. I thought it would be fun to babysit together and make a sleepover out of it, but if you’re not up to it that’s totally cool.”

“Alya-”

“I’m just saying that if you want to go home, you can go home. You know that, right?”

“I know.”

“You don’t have to hide anything from me.” Alya scoots a little closer and puts an arm around Marinette with a tight, friendly squeeze. “You can tell me everything.”

“I know,” Marinette whispers again.

“Then tell me what’s going on. Something is up, I know there is. If you _really_ don’t want to tell me, that’s okay, but I’d appreciate it if you did. I just want to help you.”

Alya hears sniffling and then sees tear stains appear on Marinette’s sleeping shorts. “I think I want to tell you. I haven’t told anyone else. But… you’re gonna hate me so much for not saying this sooner! And there’s nothing you can do anyway! I don’t even know what’s going on and the only person who might know is gone and I have no clue what to do!” Marinette is bawling her eyes out now, the tears flowing uninterrupted and her breaths coming out ragged.

“Hey, slow down.”

“I’m just so lost right now! How do you go through your day when you feel so miserable? When you can’t even trust yourself?”

“Marinette, please, calm down. Take a deep breath and explain to me what’s going on, all right?”

Marinette does as she is told and then looks at her. Alya can see that she is scared. What can weigh so heavily on her that she can’t even tell her best friend?

“Alya, I’m Ladybug.”

The clock ticks in the silence of the room. Alya takes a few seconds to let the new information sink in.

“…You’re Ladybug.”

“Yes,” she breathes out. “But that’s not even what this is about. I… I know this is a lot to take in, but can you please look past that for a second and hear me out?”

“S-sure. Of course.”

“All right. Here it goes. I… last week I confessed to Adrien. I didn’t tell you because it didn’t go that well. I was upset when he said no, so I took a moment to myself but then an Akuma came my way. I tried to escape it, and I wanted to be faster by transforming into Ladybug, but at that same time, I think the Akuma went into my earring. Do you still follow?”

Alya nods.

“So yeah, I could hear Hawkmoth. He tries to win me over. He says he knows I’m Ladybug, and I don’t even know what to do with that, but anyway I chase him out of my head. And an Akuma is supposed to appear then, right? But it never did. And you know Trixx? Your Kwami? Well, I have my own, of course, Tikki. Well, she’s never come out of my earrings. Now I’m stuck with purple earrings in ‘Ladybug-mode’, I don’t have my Kwami and… I’ve been feeling _so sick_ lately. The master of the Miraculous’ is out of town, so I can’t ask him for help and Chat Noir… I don’t think he would like to help me either.”

“What? Why? You guys are a duo.”

Marinette sighs. “Two nights ago, we were on patrol and then all of the sudden I feel terrible. I’m shaking and such, and then everything goes black. I thought I passed out, but the moment I wake up we’re on the other side of Paris. Chat Noir is beat up and so am I. He puts me down and when I look at him he is… he just looked so _scared_ of me. He runs away and then I went home on my own.”

“That’s… weird.”

“It is. I don’t remember anything, but I think… I think that we fought, Alya. I think I attacked him.”

Alya takes at the time to think then nods. “I think so, too. Can I share my thoughts?”

“Go ahead.

“I personally think, because you got akumatized while transforming, the Akuma sort of… merged with your Miraculous.” She gently takes Marinette’s lobe and examines the earring. “I think the Akuma is trying to break free through you, which explains the feeling sick. Your body is fighting for control. I think the Akuma has taken control in that moment with Chat Noir, which explains your vision going black and you not remembering what happened.”

“That… actually seems very logical. How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Stay so level-headed, I guess. I… I literally just told you I’m a magical superhero who apparently has a demon butterfly inside her, and you just… take it in and find solutions.”

“You asked me.”

“I know, but… thank you anyways.” Marinette comes in for a hug, and Alya gladly returns it.

“Just so you know, I will have my freak-out in the bathroom in bit, but then we’re gonna do everything we can to fix this, okay? We will fix you.”

Marinette smiles. “Yes, we will. Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're finally getting past the crying and feeling sick phase. Of course, she will still feel sick and sad sometimes, but we're gonna get a little more action and of course... ladynoir ;)


End file.
